Obviously the question varies depending on what kinds of blogs you read and how many. I use Google Reader to keep track of the blogs and am able to scroll through them rather quickly to keep up. With the 20 or so blogs I read, I started thinking about the question of why one would read a blog in the first place. My wife Lindsey prefers blogs that have to do with decorating and homey things like that. And I promise you, our home is better off for it–she’s quite the decorator. She’ll also read the blogs of friends and family in order to keep up on their lives and to stay connected to what’s happening with them. The world of blogging is widespread, from sports blogs to tech blogs to dancing blogs–there’s even a Star Wars blog (which I didn’t hyperlink because it’s a Star Wars blog). To each his or her own.

I read blogs for two specific reasons. One, John Piper once said of himself, “it’s sentences that change my life, not books.” I read it. I thought about it and said, “YES! Absolutely right!” There are few books I’ve read of which I could map out the course of the entire book. But there are a number of books I can pull of my shelf and tell you a sentence in each one that struck me and caused me to seek its idea or thought further in study or prayer. So I read blogs for that sentence. Often times the blog points me to a book I think will be worth reading. So I do read books still, and I won’t stop until my heart stops.

The second reason I read blogs is to be inspired. I find that the blogs I am interested in are written by men and women who inspire me, or at the very least, contain content that inspires me. Although I am a pastor I need inspiration. Believe it or not, your pastor isn’t always excited to do what he or she does. We get drained and discouraged, and I recently read that 70% of pastors consistently battle depression. So I’ll take inspiration wherever I can get it, whether it’s seeing a life well-lived or a phrase that stirs my affections to press on and continue the work to which I have been called.

That’s why I read blogs. How about you? Do you have specific reasons you read blogs?